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Our budget is out of whack, way, way, way out of whack. I could blame Christmas. Or all the birthdays. Or Halloween. Or Thanksgiving.

Or I could blame Target.

Although Christmas and the rest of the holidays were expensive, I think it boils down to the fact that I spend much too much money at Target. It doesn’t help that Target is less than five minutes from my house. The proximity makes it extremely convenient. If I had an unlimited budget, my shopping would pretty much all be done at Target and Trader Joe’s with the occasional stop at Hyvee or Price Chopper for that odd ingredient. I could walk to Trader Joe’s and Target if necessary.

However, what often happens at Target is that unnecessary purchase. I go for cat food and I walk out with granola bars, socks for my daughter, pants for my son, wine, lip gloss, and yes, cat food. Do any of those things seem completely frivolous? Well, maybe the wine. But most of those are “necessary.” But I guess the question is whether it is necessary right now.

I went to Target a week ago with Christmas gift cards and a plan to buy a new shirt for myself. The gift cards totaled $35. I walked out of there with a receipt totaling $125. I bought a dress, 2 shirts, belt for me, belts for my daughter, socks for my daughter, pants for my other daughter, a sweater for my other daughter, tights, pantyhose, and maybe more. I returned the dress and belt. I needed to try it on at home to see how it actually looked. That gave me back $50. So I spent $75 when I meant to spend $35. Maybe $40 extra doesn’t sound terrible, but our budget needs to be extremely tightened. Extremely. Yes, my daughter needed socks. But she needed socks because she never puts her socks away. I bet if we thoroughly cleaned her room and the laundry room, we could find plenty of socks.

So I’m on a Target diet. I’m going to stay away from that store unless absolutely necessary. I’m going to attempt to go without my kids because they sometimes distract me from my purpose.